Does “No Cost” Really Mean No Cost?

Does “No Cost” Really Mean No Cost?

Spoke with a brand new client the other day who shared with me his feelings about our claim of “no cost”.

He said, “I have to admit, the ‘no cost/high value’ claim felt a little suspect to me.”

He went on to say, “I have to assume that even though the agency is paying the fee to you and we pay nothing, I’m sure the agency will bill us back to recoup their fees.”

While I have no way to prove this doesn’t happen, I can tell you that no marketer has ever complained in the 8 years we have had the business. No marketer has ever felt like they were getting charged back.

I can also point to 35 happy marketing clients that found great agencies as a result of our search methodology.

Like most of the marketers that come to us to help them find new agencies, they:

Have tried to manage a search on their own and haven’t done so successfully

Have large number of agencies reaching out to them and don’t have the time to review them

Don’t know if what they’re looking at is best-in-class to meet the needs of their business

Don’t want to pay for a big time traditional search consultant

So I realize that great things are never really free.

But in the case of my company, RSW/AgencySearch, the cost to you is only your time (and only a little of it).

The value in “high value” far out surpasses any cost (if there really were any that existed).

Using our professional methodology and unique-to-the-industry model, delivers a great agency partner, improved business results, and a happy, long-term relationship.

Many of the relationships we initiated back in 2010 when I started the business are still running strong today.

So while “No Cost/High Value” might appear a bit suspect on the surface, we have plenty of marketers that would happily speak on behalf of what we do to assure you that getting involved in our process is high on the value and negligent on the cost.

Mark is a 30-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods, advertising, and marketing service industry. Mark started his career at DDB Needham in Chicago prior to earning his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Business School at Northwestern where he majored in Marketing and Economics. Prior to starting RSW/US in 2005, Mark was General Manager for AcuPOLL, a global research consultancy. Sneider worked in Marketing for S.C. Johnson and KAO Brands. Sneider has been invited to speak at numerous Agency events and network conferences domestically and internationally including the 4A’s, Magnet, NAMA, TAAN, and MCAN. Sneider has been featured in prominent industry publications including Adweek, Media Post, e-Marketer, and Forbes. When not working (which often seems like not often), Mark likes to run miles, go to church, and just chill with a hard copy issue of Fast Company.